Revolutionizing the world of containers

A recent Infoworld.com article, New Container Tools Shift Software Development into Overdrive, takes a look at the ever-increasing need for containers and the latest and greatest out of the container world, including the newly announced HPE DevOps tools with Docker integration.

According to the article, containers (software that packages together the code, operating environment and configuration data needed to develop an application and operate it) is nothing new. But what is new is the speed at which developers are having to create and update new applications.

“Some are calling it a revolution. Everyone from startups to major corporations in just about every kind of company that works with data are taking part. The 2010s, it seems, is the age of containers,” the article claims.

The article states that as businesses increasingly demand more application development agility and the ability to roll out frequent application updates, many IT organizations are moving to a DevOps methodology. This new way of thinking means greater cooperation between development and operation infrastructure teams to facilitate continuous integration and deployment of software application.

“To do otherwise is to risk losing customers and revenues,” the article explains. “Fortunately, containers, along with a host of new DevOps tools, help make this possible.”

Principal among these new DevOps tools is Docker, a software platform for building and managing containers. According to Frances Guida, a manager leading HPE Composable Infrastructure programs, “Docker is a very important tool in every organization’s DevOps toolkit.”

As the article explains, HPE is benefiting from containers by using Docker to aid in its DevOps efforts. HPE tools integrated with Docker technology include the newly announced HPE Helion Development Platform 2.0, which simplifies the process of building Docker containers; HPE StormRunner and HPE AppPulse for Docker, which test and monitor the performance of a container-using applications to notify engineers of potential performance problems; and a Docker Machine plugin that adds Docker support to HPE’s Composable Infrastructure products.

The Docker Machine plugin allows for provisioning of Docker Machine directly onto bare-metal infrastructure using the Composable Infrastructure API native in HPE OneView. This allows customers to get greater flexibility in deployment options for their private clouds as they turn to containerized applications to accelerate their ability to bring new functionality to their users.

“We used Docker for our own infrastructure management software,” says Guida. “Using containers helped the HPE OneView team reduce software build times by more than half. In a DevOps environment that calls for hundreds of builds a day, even minutes shaved off build times add up fast.”

HPE also recently announced enterprise-grade, extended support for containers in alignment with HPE’s technology solutions roadmaps. Now HPE IT support services customers have access to container-related help with a single point of contact to specialists around the world.

“All of which adds momentum to the container revolution,” the article concludes.